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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing, waste of a read!,
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This review is from: The Reluctant Fundamentalist: A Novel (Hardcover) (Paperback)
What a waste of a book that could have been really powerful! I went back and read the critical reviews and all I can say is that the critics had to have been motivated by a sense of political correctness (a misplaced "such voices - exotic? diverse? multi-cultural? anti-american? - must be heard") in reviewing this insipid, uninspiring and ultimately (and this is THE big sin in my book) boring story.But let's put political correctness aside. After all that's not what we are (at least I am not) looking for in reading other people's stories; instead I hope discover a little bit more about life's universal truths or something that resembles them when I put aside an evening to read such a well-reviewed book. Re. the politics: the politics of blaming America for 9/11 and justifying Islamic terrorism is palpable just below the surface (protagonist feels happy when twin towers come down!) and it is annoying BUT I am completely comfortable with even that assumption as long as the writer can draw me into a compelling narrative with a protagonist who has something convincingly righteous (in his own mind) and/or true to tell us. None of this happens. The other annoying issue is the use of the device where the main protagonist tells this story (all past tense) to a visiting American in Pakistan post 9/11. The device is annoying because of how the story unfolds; additionally the tone that the author uses for the protagonist is one of a cheap tout or local tour guide which is simply incorrect and misplaced. No Pakistani from a well-placed family like the protagonist's, educated at Princeton, worked at a top NY financial services firm would talk/behave in this manner with a visiting American. I doubt if American readers will pick up on this false note but it was jarring for me (I am from India and do have a good sense for how such story-telling might play out). Finally the story is uninspiring because the protagonist is torn, confused, misguided by a sense of guilt and a feeling of being an outsider and never quite resolves or understands any of it. The only distraction is that he manages to fall in love with a white American woman -- but she in turn is in love with a dead man (yes ironical, cruelly beautiful but finally uninteresting); even their single sex scene evokes only pity. All of this might also have been fine except that there is never any kind of insight or redemption or even a glimmer of hope that the protagonist is on some sort of a journey. Life's-a-bitch-and-then-you-die is the easiest kind of story to write. Perhaps it is interesting to some people. But for me it's primarily lazy, insufferable and boring.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Required reading for all Americans,
This review is from: The Reluctant Fundamentalist: A Novel (Hardcover) (Paperback)
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid is an incredible, mind altering story filled with ominous suspense, and an attentive outside view of America.The story is told in an interesting way, narrated by Changez to an American acquaintance while sitting at a café in Lahore. I both liked and disliked this style of storytelling. In the beginning I had a difficult time connecting with the characters, but that changed as I came to the middle and end of the story. The conversational tone made the book quick and easy to read. Changez tells his story of attending college in America and excelling in the corporate world. After 9/11, though, his life in the US begins to unravel as he feels torn between his roots in Pakistan and his new life in America. All the while, Changez engages in a doomed love affair with Erica, this golden girl drowning in her love for her dead boyfriend. I feel as though the relationship Changez had with Erica was a metaphor for his relationship with America and being American. He fell fast and hard, quickly becoming a part of her world. He accompanied her to many events and parties and was accepted easily, but still felt like an outsider on some level. After 9/11 she withdrew from him, making him less a part of her world and then shutting him out altogether. She longed for something that was no longer attainable; Changez longed to feel a part of her world again, even if that meant pretending to be someone he wasn't. I loved seeing America through Changez's eyes. I thought that reading this book wouldn't alter my perspective too much because I'm a fan of novels set in the Middle East. I thought my perspectives had been changed a long while ago. In the story, Changez talks about how little America experiences the effects of war at home. War isn't fought on our soil. We don't fear for our lives and our safety everyday like so many other people around the world. Changez's home country of Pakistan was NOT at war with America or Afghanistan, yet they felt the impact much more deeply than we did as Americans. In this way, my view of the world has been profoundly altered. I would recommend this book if only just for the new outlook.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Haunting and oddly frightening,
This review is from: The Reluctant Fundamentalist: A Novel (Hardcover) (Paperback)
More than any well-researched article you may read, this haunting and oddly frightening piece of fiction will give you insight into the dynamic that can turn a Western-educated Muslim from a rising star on Wall Street into a coordinator of jihadist efforts. The writing is deliberately ambiguous and unsettling. New York Times' 100 Notable Books of 2007.
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